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I wonder if it's okay to use "had somebody something" to convey the meaning of "if somebody had something"?

For example:

  • "I would have laughed at him had he more facetious manners"

  • "I would have laughed at him if he had more facetious manners"

KillingTime
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Sala
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  • This is a good question b/c it appears to be an inverted conditional with a 'had had' situation which results in not only the 'if' being omitted and 'he had' being reversed (to 'had he') but also the first 'had' being omitted. Similar to this: 'I would've married him if he'd had more money.' Changed to this: 'I would've married him had he more money.' With no real change in meaning (??). Hmm, interesting. I would've probably added a time marker: 'I would've married him had he more money at the time.' I couldn't find this particular case; maybe it has a name… Welcome and best of luck. – HippoSawrUs Mar 15 '24 at 07:20
  • It's grammatical (try searching the site for inversion) but it's formal, written English, and not the clearest way to express it. The specific example is ambiguous. – Stuart F Mar 15 '24 at 08:09
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    "Had I not [done that, something else] would not have happened" is still reasonably current. I think "had he had more facetious manners" is better. – Kate Bunting Mar 15 '24 at 08:35
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    Does this answer your question? What does “would not have been possible had I remained” mean? It's not clear why you have doubts about the expression, so if your doubts aren't covered by the answers, then tell us your specific problem. – Stuart F Mar 15 '24 at 09:30
  • As with Stuart, I think it's grammatical but not very idiomatic. – Barmar Mar 15 '24 at 19:44
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    People who closed this as a duplicate didn't read it. It's about using "have" in the sense of "possess," not as a marker of the perfect. – alphabet Mar 15 '24 at 23:49

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